Iceland!

The best part about living in the United Kingdom is being so well connected to the world. We booked a $150 flight for two and made our way to Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. The first thing we noticed was that no one was wearing masks. Here in the UK we still have COVID restrictions so it was a little jarring but when in Rome! The second thing we noticed was how much the landscape coming from the airport looked like a barren wasteland. An arctic tundra. I haven't seen snow since 2008 so I was super excited, the first thing I did after making to our flat was build a snowman on our balcony!

Reykjavik is a super chic hipster city with lots of culture. This capital city is houses around 131,000 residents, almost a third of the population of the entire island. Reykjavik is home to an iconic rainbow road, amazing bars, chic restaurants, and homey cafes all with the Hallgrímskirkja church (the second largest building in the city) looming in the background. It is one of the most clean, green and safe cities in the world. We spent about 2 and a half days in the City because it snowed constantly. It felt like it never stopped snowing. I was the driver on this trip and I haven’t driven in snow in

almost probably 15 years, so it took a little bit getting used to. Thankfully the rental car had snow tires which gave us a lot of peace of mind while driving the icy roads. Iceland has a really amazing road condition tracking system so you know before you leave to go anywhere whether the roads are clear or icy or impassible. One of the more interesting attractions we stopped at in the city was the Icelandic Phallological Museum, aka the Penis Museum. It houses the world's largest display of penises from more than 100 species of animals. Definitely check out the Wikipedia page for this place because the founders history is WILD! It's not something I'll forget for some time!

On the eve of the third day the weather started to cooperate and we were able to finally get on the road and do some real exploring so we made our way south along the ring road which circumnavigates the entire island. Our first destination was the Seljalandsfoss, a 200 foot high waterfall just off the main highway. The snow was falling pretty heavily and there was a lot of ice but it was a beautiful sight to see.

After leaving we headed over to Skogafoss. Also 200 feet high and about 85 foot wide, the waterfall is truly a feast for your eyes. You can take a 430 step staircase up to the top of the waterfall, but we decided not to do that (stupid Ice and snow!).

Fun Fact: Skogafoss was used as filming locations for the Marvel movie Thor: The Dark World, Prometheus, Game of Thrones, and was featured in a Justin Bieber music video.

Our final stop took us to the small town of Vik to go to the famed Black Sand Beach which was so cool because it’s covered in tiny black pebbles instead of sand and you can see all kinds of volcanic rock and different stones in a myriad of colors and shapes and there were some cool rock formations out in the ocean. It started snowing again so we made our way back to Reykjavík and called it a day before heading out early the next morning to do some more exploring.

Our next day took us more north east on what is known as the golden circle. We had a final destination of Gullfoss, an absolutely massive waterfall. I believe it’s one of the largest in all of Europe. Gullfoss is a three step staircase waterfall where the water falls first down a 36 foot drop then a 70 foot drop and then again into another 105 foot drop. The water then pools in a giant crevice that is 70 feet wide and about a mile and a half long. It was so windy and so icy it was really hard to make it to the viewpoint. The ice was so thick it came up to the seat of a park bench. They have a really really nice visitor center where we were able to get coffee and hot chocolate and warm up because after we came inside we were completely soaked from head to toe. Greg took a nice fall as we were leaving, but thankfully he ended up with only a bruised ego!

On our way back from Gullfoss, we stopped at the Strokkur geyser, a geothermal geyser that erupts every 8 to 10 minutes or so. We only saw it go off twice, the first time being very underwhelming, but the second time it really exploded shooting up about 20 maybe 30 feet high.

The water was super super warm and the air was saturated with sulfur but the cold still made it miserable to stand outside waiting for an eruption so we booked it back to the car after the second eruption. That night we had an aurora alert but only caught a few brief green wisps in the sky before they disappeared!

The next day it had stopped snowing completely and most of the ice and snow had melted overnight so we decided to go to the Kerid Crater, which we skipped the day before due to weather. We snapped a few photos but then decided because the weather was so nice that we would head east again and see the falls that we had already done because most of the white snow had melted away revealing beautiful green luscious scenery all everywhere we looked.

We hit all the waterfalls that we had already done, plus headed to the other side of the Black Sand Beach that we thought we were going to on the first day where you can see amazing examples of basalt columns at huge giant Atlantic waves. On our way back we ended up going to Kvernufoss, which we discovered while scouring through google maps looking for new sights to see. Kverna waterfall spills out over steep moss covered cliffs into a beautiful valley. We were able to hike behind the waterfall and stand behind it and it was truly an awe inspiring experience.

Our last full day in Iceland was spent at the Blue Lagoon, considered by National Geographic as one of the 25 wonders of the world. This geothermal spa is located in southwestern Iceland and is one of the most visited attractions in the country.

The Blue Lagoon is also home to hotels, spas, and restaurants which were extremely expensive and way too out of our budget! Its geothermal hot springs sit on a soft bed of silica which forms a white mud that results in the most milky blue water you will ever see in your life.

It’s quite an experience too, you get checked in, then you have to get naked in a room full of strangers, shower with no privacy whatsoever, then you can put on your swimsuit, and head into the water. Personally I am not a fan of public nudity, but honestly it wasn’t too bad.

The water averages about 99 to 102°F and because it was so cold it was just a drift of steamy gray fog covering everything and at points you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face. It was so thick. Our tickets included three different facemasks that we apply periodically through our four hour soak and they also have a Disney magic band type system where you can purchase drinks and alcoholic beverages at their swim up bars and also inside of their cafés all from your wrist. At one point it had started to snow pretty heavily while we were soaking which was so cool to experience.

One thing that I will mention about Iceland is that you better prepare yourself mentally for just how expensive everything is. Every meal that we ate out was at least 60 to 80 USD, even fast food meals ran us about $50. We were walking around a mall in Reykjavik and found a KitchenAid stand mixer that you can usually get on sale for like $350-400, going for around $1000 and an OXO salad spinner that I have back in the US that I bought for $30 on sale for $60. It's nuts!

We left Iceland with a yearning to return in the summer to be able to explore the northern coast of the island. It’s definitely worth a second trip! If you liked this post, like and subscribe to get updates on all of our travels around the world. Click any of the images below to be taken to the full album from our Iceland trip or check out our gallery page linked above for more online photo albums from all our travels!